Arizona public schools must not
become an arm of law enforcement, which would happen if an idea floated by Pima
County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik becomes reality.

Dupnik told a U.S. Senate panel on
border security that schools should be able to ask a child to prove his or her
legal immigration status before enrolling in a public school.

Turning school personnel into
immigration police would do little to solve the real problem of a broken U.S.
immigration policy.

Dupnik said in an interview
Tuesday morning that, regardless of his personal opinions on the matter, the
Sheriff's Department is not changing policy or planning to take any action.

"We're not going to go to schools,
not going to do immigration sweeps — I'm not trying to emulate (Maricopa County
Sheriff) Joe Arpaio," he said. "I was merely trying to point out why we have
extraordinary problems that we have to deal with and I wanted Washington to have
a reality lesson."

Dupnik said schools should require
that students prove they are U.S. citizens or in the country legally before
they're allowed to enroll. If they can't, then school officials would report the
family to federal immigration authorities.

"It's a complex, complicated issue
and we have to look at all of the aspects related to border security," he said.
"I think we need to do everything we can to discourage people from coming here.
When a substantial number of students are here illegally, I think that directly
relates to border security and many of the social problems, including crime,
that we have to look at."

Schools are prohibited by a 1982
U.S. Supreme Court decision from asking students to prove legal residence. Even
if they weren't bound by law, schools have no business trying to determine
anyone's citizenship or immigration status. Doing so would violate the
philosophy and usefulness of a free public education, and the ripple effects
would be felt throughout our communities.

Turning school officials into
immigration agents would not do much to stem illegal immigration. It is true
that students who are in the country illegally do attend Arizona schools and,
yes, they do cost taxpayers money.

That must be weighed against the
greater cost of creating an underclass of children who live in our community but
are barred from attending school. Crime, vandalism and poverty are also linked
strongly with a lack of education.

We also do not believe that
throngs of undocumented immigrants would return to their home country because
their children can't go to school.

Dupnik's complete turnaround on
this issue is startling. In 1996 he said, "This country needs to do more to
protect its borders. But they need to do it in a humanitarian, logical way. Not
allowing children to go to school isn't the logical answer."

He was right.

Dupnik now says he thinks it's
time for a test case to challenge the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

However, trying to overturn the
high court's decision is a gamble and it's a long-term gamble. No decision could
possibly be reached in time to fix Arizona's budget problems.

Scaring parents from sending their
children to school is not sound public policy.

We share Dupnik's frustration that
the federal government has failed to fix the country's immigration policy. But
punishing children for their parents' decisions, and the shortcomings of the
U.S. government, is not the American way.